PATTEN, Maine – After months of trying to save the oldest church in town, the Patten Historical Society now holds the deed to the 1845 property.
“Turning the key in the lock was a moment of joy,” said Marcia Pond, who led the effort to save the church. “As the door opened I was met with a flood of memories.”
What began with one woman’s quest to save an important historic structure blossomed into a town-wide effort to save the church. In an overwhelming display of approval at the Patten Annual Town Meeting in late April, residents voted 82 to 5 in favor of conveying the 1845 Regular Baptist Church from the town to the Patten Historical Society.
Pond said when she first entered the church this week she sat near the altar in contemplation, thinking of the journey to this point and all that had transpired since last year.
“I was both happy and relieved because we achieved our goal to save a very valuable piece of town history from destruction,” she said, adding that she was relieved holding a copy of the deed and the keys to a much loved building.
The saga to save the Old Baptist church began when Pond heard the town council had voted to demolish it last year. A town icon and home to the Veteran’s Memorial Library for nearly 100 years, the historic church was part of the community’s fabric and Pond was determined to preserve it.
Following several Bangor Daily News accounts of the church’s potential destruction earlier this year, support from around the country flooded Pond’s email with people offering financial help, grant-writing expertise and even carpentry and restoration services.
Pond and local physician Ron Blum formed the Preservation Committee to Save the Church. As membership grew, so did their resolve. Despite a rough go with the Patten Select Board, they finally decided to let the town choose what to do with the church.
The Regular Baptist Church was created after the founding residents bought shares to pay for the building materials. In the mid-1800s, young men reported to muster into the Patten Rifle Company D, a voluntary militia, at the church. They later served in the Union Army’s 20th Maine, according to town historians.
The town has owned the building since 1928 and it has been home to the Veteran’s Memorial Library for more than 92 years. The library left the church building in 2020 and is temporarily housed in the Patten Lumbermen’s Museum, awaiting the construction of a nearly $8 million building. The new library received $3.9 million in federal funds from the 2023 agriculture appropriations bill.
The preservation committee, now a working group of more than 30 members, asked the select board earlier this year to transfer ownership of the church to the Patten Historical society. The board resisted the request even after the committee submitted a petition with more than 100 signatures in support of the property transfer.
In March, the select board approved the preservation group’s request for a town vote on the matter.
Now that the committee has the deed and the keys, they are getting ready for the Maine Historic Preservation Commission to inspect the building and offer guidance on the next steps for getting the church on the historic registry, Blum said.
After reading a February Bangor Daily News article about the efforts to save the church, Michael Goebel-Bain, historic preservation coordinator for the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, reached out to Pond.
When the state commission reviews historic sites, preservationists consider whether the building is historically significant by evaluating its history and its architecture, the building’s integrity and whether the historic qualities have been altered, Goebel-Bain said at the time, adding that a building’s religious associations can be an important piece in the decision for historic registry.
“Eligibility would qualify the church for state grants like the Certified Local Governments matching grants,” he said.
Blum is concentrating on building repairs and is obtaining estimates on foundation repairs and a small roof leak, he said.
Even though they did not have the deed in time for Memorial Day, they decorated the outside of the church, Blum said, adding how nice it looks.
In a Patten Historical Society Facebook post about the decorating, members talked about how seriously the townspeople took Memorial Day in the past by adorning the town in honor of local veterans.
The preservation committee will visit the building for their first group inspection since many members have not been able to visit it yet, Pond said.
The group hopes to plan a special celebration for the community soon, and Blum said perhaps it will happen during Patten’s Pioneer Days in August.
“It was truly worth it,” Pond said. “And I will never forget that it could not have happened without all those generous and talented people who joined the group.”